JACOBS (WILLIAM WYMARK, 1863-1943, short story writer) AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SIGNED OF HIS ARTLESS SHORT STORY 'KEEPING WATCH', signed in three places, about a naive wharfman, employed by a skipper to prevent his daughter meeting the man from whom she has been receiving letters, being tricked by the daughter, set about with a mop by the lover and locked in a cabin while she runs off to get married, written in dialect, some editorial markings in pencil, 29 leaves, small quarto, written on the rectos only, with an additional title-leaf bearing the ink stamp of the Red Cross and St. John's Charity Sale, Jacob's address 'Feltham House, Loughton, Essex' and the pencil note '2 copies', stains from paper clip, spindle holes, no date [but c. 1913]

Other than for his stories of macabre invention, like 'The Monkey's Paw', Jacobs is best known for those of a humorous nature concerning seafaring men (particularly their misadventures on shore) and warfingers. 'Keeping Watch' was first published in the Strand Magazine for December 1913 and was published in book-form in Night Watches, 1914. Michael Sadleir thought Jacobs represented 'a wholly distinctive epoch of English humour' and was 'a master of his craft.'

£650